Differences in home-range sizes of a bird species in its original, refuge and substitution habitats: challenges to conservation in anthropogenic habitats

Godet, Laurent; Harmange, Clément; Marquet, Matthieu; Joyeux, Emmanuel; Fournier, Jérôme

doi:10.1007/s10531-017-1460-3

Cited by 18 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…In contrast, long-staying Bluethroats seem to expand their home range probably because they are in high demand of food for refueling and, perhaps, because of the competition with conspecifics and other species (Chernetsov and Titov 2001;Fransson et al 2008). If home-range size is considered a proxy of habitat quality, inland reedbeds could be interpreted as a refuge or a more optimal habitat than corn crops, which might represent the most-commonly available substitution habitat (Godet et al 2018), where birds needing to refuel would move due to competition and the limited availability of reedbeds. In our site, Bluethroats encounter also some potentially unsuitable habitats such as woodlands, open water, mowngrasslands and infrastructures (house, road, railway) that would explain why they had to fly away a relatively long distance from their preferred roosts (Harmange et al 2016), expanding their home range size.…”

Section: Habitat and Roosting Site Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin

et al. 2019

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Wetlands are highly productive habitats that are largely used by many avian species as stopover sites during their migrations. However, these habitats are highly threatened by anthropogenic activities, such as land use changes, the introduction of exotic species and global warming. Further understanding on the spatiotemporal use of wetlands and their surrounding areas by migrating birds is essential to predict how these changes might affect avian en route ecology. We selected a habitat-generalist passerine of conservation concern, the Bluethroat Luscinia svecica, as model of how migratory birds exploit a highly anthropogenic river basin in southwestern France (i.e. Barthes de la Nive) during autumn migration. We captured and radiotracked 29 young Bluethroats in this region to shed light on different aspects of their stopover ecology and behaviour, such as stopover duration, habitat selection and home range size. We also complemented the study with a characterization of Bluethroat diet and arthropod availability in different habitats. Bluethroats positively selected reedbeds (pure or mixed associated with carex), hydrophilous tall grasslands and corn crops. Birds staying more than just one day, 8.4 days on average, used preferably corn crops. Home range sizes were on average 5.8 ha (fixed kernels K95) and high occupancy area (K50) was 1.36 ha with large individual variation. Bluethroats stopping over with low body reserves tended to have larger home ranges and used preferentially corn crops, wet or mesotrophic grasslands and rural paths. Reedbeds were typically used as roosting habitat for the majority of birds, being on average 397 m apart from their daytime core areas. Short-staying birds tended to show higher body reserves and restricted their activities to a smaller home range (1 ha) in pure and mixed reedbed. The diet of Bluethroats was dominated by ants Hymenoptera Formicidae, Araneidae and Coleoptera that were most abundant in the corn crops. The use of corn crops by migrating Bluethroats during autumn in our study site appears to be a reasonable solution in a highly altered environment. Reducing the use of insecticides in these crops and delaying the harvesting time after mid-October are two measures that could favour Bluethroats and other migratory species while natural wetlands are restored and reedbeds protected from tree encroachment. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -This work was supported by the Conseil Départemental des Pyrénées Atlantiques, Syndicat Nive Maritime, Villefranque and Bayonne councils. We are particularly grateful to F. Esnault, S. Valles, R. Damestoy and R. Dufourcq. We are extremely thankful to L. Delalande, F. Delfour, A. Glad, M. Janczyszyn-Le Goff, T. Sarraude, for their commitment in the collection of the radiotracking data, to L. Julien for invertebrate sampling, and members of OISO association who made this research possible, especially F. Lartigau. National Museum of Natural History authorized the bird-ringing and radio-tracking scheme. The experiments were complied with the current laws of ...

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Section: Habitat and Roosting Site Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin

et al. 2019

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“…Studies on birds showed that habitat degradation may affect movement behavior. Birds have larger home‐ranges in disturbed and fragmented environments, and smaller home‐ranges in intact and interconnected habitats (Carey, Reid & Horton, ; Godet, Hamange, Marquet, Joyeux & Fournier, ; Hansbauer, Storch, Pimentel & Metzger, ). Such effects can reduce population density and, thus, negatively impact the long‐term viability of populations (Estrada, Morales‐Castilla, Caplat & Early, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Movement ecology of Afrotropical birds: Functional traits provide complementary insights to species identity

2019

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Effects of anthropogenic activities on habitats and species communities and populations are complex and vary across species depending on their ecological traits. Movement ecology may provide important insights into species’ responses to habitat structures and quality. We investigated how movement behavior across a human‐modified landscape depends on species identity and species traits, with particular focus on habitat specialization, feeding guilds, and dispersal behavior. We tracked 34 individuals of nine Afrotropical bird species during three years in an anthropogenic riparian landscape of East Africa. We investigated whether species’ functional traits predicted their habitat use and movement behavior better than species’ identities. Our results indicate that habitat specialists mainly occur in dense riparian thickets, while habitat generalists do occur in agricultural land. Home‐ranges of omnivorous habitat generalists are larger than of frugivorous and insectivorous generalists and omnivorous and insectivorous specialists. Movement speed was highest in settlement areas for all species, with activity peaks during morning and afternoon for habitat specialists. Our results reveal that functional traits and species identity provide complementary insights into responses of organisms to habitat structures and habitat quality.

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“…Degraded landscapes typically have low food supplies that may be a causal factor for negative population trends seen in songbirds. 12,13,15,16,43–45 Widespread loss of winter habitats suitable for juncos may be limiting population size. These challenges are amplified in boreal forest species that have become imperiled due to climate change and subsequent habitat loss.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the event the signal was being transmitted from private property or in an inaccessible area, its location was triangulated by recording two or more GPS locations and compass bearings, which exceeded a 45-degree difference. 12,32…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…5–8 However, these experiments have not distinguished the role of mortality on survival measurements made by resighting birds in both experimental and control groups. 9 To make this distinction, radio transmitters attached to experimental birds 10–14 were used to confirm loss due to mortality, increasing the reliability of demographic conclusions from an experimental setup featuring winter food supplementation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Radiotracking refines the role of food supplementation on overwinter survival of the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

Spellmeyer

Rogers

Schneegurt

2020

Avian Biology Research

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Resource availability, particularly food, can limit the size of bird populations during the nonbreeding season. Resident and short-distance migrant birds, wintering in colder environments, should show strong effects of food limitation on winter survival. Here, we introduce a novel experiment testing for the effect of supplemental feeding on the winter survival of the Dark-eyed Junco ( Junco hyemalis), a short- to medium-distance migrant in North America. Color-ringed juncos were monitored by resighting in the winters of 2011, 2012, and 2013. Winter supplemental feeding significantly increased junco survival within winters. However, it is possible that juncos not resighted underwent within-winter dispersal rather than died. Thus, in the winter of 2014, very high frequency radio transmitters were attached to 29 juncos from unsupplemented sites to ascertain the fate of birds not resighted. We found that movement beyond the study area was minimal and most juncos maintained a discrete home range. Of the radiotagged birds, 27.5% were not resighted during observation periods, but were located and confirmed alive via radiotracking. A correction factor for within-winter dispersal was applied to previous years’ data and the effect of food supplementation remained statistically significant for two of the three winters; the trend was the same, but not statistically significant during the warmest winter. The present results contribute to a developing conceptual model of migration-specific effects of winter food limitation. Dark-eyed Juncos are an iconic backyard birdfeeder species that have shown a steady population decline for decades. Supplemental feeding during the wintering period may regularly elevate population recruitment by increasing winter survival in avian species that winter in thermally challenging environments.

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Differences in home-range sizes of a bird species in its original, refuge and substitution habitats: challenges to conservation in anthropogenic habitats

Cited by 18 publications

References 39 publications

Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin

Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin

Movement ecology of Afrotropical birds: Functional traits provide complementary insights to species identity

Radiotracking refines the role of food supplementation on overwinter survival of the Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

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